A/N: Lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody belong to Freddie Mercury/Queen, may he rest in peace.

The Thing About Burning (More) Bridges

The thing about burning bridges was that things always got left on the other side.

Not knowing where she stood with General Ledger left Gabbi feeling bereft, swaying in the wind without her steadfast support. She hated it when they fought, and the look in his eyes when he'd left after that fateful carnival night made her heart ache. She'd hurt him, badly. Terrible news was always better delivered softly rather than in anger. That anger burned a hole in her stomach, set their whole dynamic aflame.

She wasn't sure where they were now. He hadn't come by for nightly chess, and she hadn't asked. Sometimes they both needed space.

The good thing about the carnival night was that the tattoo had come out fantastically.

Hiding it from the doctors had been a challenge, but Gabbi wasn't afraid to be labeled difficult in her chart in order to keep a modicum of privacy. She had taken care of her healing skin just as Matt's pamphlet had described, and when it was time to take the plastic off, her delicate vine bloomed in vivid black around the pinkish red of her sternal scar. She'd spent hours in the mirror admiring the artwork, hardly believing it was real. She'd have to do that every day, take it all in, before she was gone. She only had so much time left...

Wind blew through the open doors of the balcony - another no-no that Mom and Dad would never have to know about - and rustled the papers sitting on Gabbi's desk. She'd been ignoring them for far too long, their words like a curse that swam off the page every time her eyes landed on them. Still, those three little letters managed to stand out: DNR.

You need to tell them, her conscience screamed. That little voice was getting harder and harder to ignore. And now that the General knew, and would likely start to talk...

Time was running out on more fronts than one.

But she didn't have to worry about anything today!

Today, Delia was off on a date with one of her suitors, so that meant no Selected class with Ezra. That meant no charades, no fronts to put up. Just some good old-fashioned relaxation. There were a few books she'd been meaning to finish, a scarf she'd been meaning to knit, a new song to learn on the violin. So much to do and, as she noted before, so little time.

Her stomach growled. Breakfast first, then knitting.

Gabbi pulled her cardigan off the back of her door and buttoned it up to the top. She removed the oxygen cannula from her nose and shut the tank off. It had been harder to sleep these past few nights, her chest spasming and breaths coming short. It would freak Mom and Dad out if they knew, though, and that meant no going out with the medical equipment on.

Besides, she felt fine! A few deep breaths had her lungs all stretched out and ready for action. Her chest barely even ached. Good as new.

Down the hall, the sun streamed down the walls and onto the carpet. Daylight kept getting shorter and shorter the closer they crept to the winter months. Gabbi was going to miss it when the sun set in the afternoon. It wasn't fair that she was set to die in the cold of winter, but maybe it was appropriate. Wouldn't want to ruin someone's summer holiday with her passing. Besides, a winter funeral meant everyone would still care enough to plant flowers by her grave come spring.

Did healthy people have these thoughts? She wondered, humming to herself as she skipped along.

She turned a corner down the stairs and rounded an empty hallway. This was the back way to the kitchens, the servant's way. Not a proper way for a princess, but Gabbi didn't feel like facing the pomp and circumstance that came with entering the formal dining room. The cooks in the kitchen liked her enough that they often had little snacks lying around just in case one of the royal children passed through. Hopefully a few finger sandwiches or a bowl of soup would be wrapped up with her name on it.

The only bad part was that the quickest way to the kitchens also cut through the Selected's wing. It wasn't the best set up, and honestly her parents probably put the guests in this part to prevent any un-royal behavior, but Gabbi wasn't deterred. Most of the Selected were likely out of their rooms anyway. Free days were rare and who would want to spend their free time staring at a mahogany wall when they could run around and beat each other up outside...or whatever it was bros liked to do.

The hall was supposed to be empty.

So, color her surprised when she heard someone plucking at a piano in a nearby lounge.

Curiosity killed the cat, or so the saying went. Gabbi knew she shouldn't go check out the sound, that if word got back to her parents she would find herself shackled to her bed and put on a dozen antibiotics for possible exposure. But she recognized the head at the piano, recognized the strange cowlick and bowed back, the shoes bouncing on the carpet.

"Hey," Gabbi called into the room, shutting the door softly behind her. "Whatcha doing?"

As far as she knew, Ezra was an outdoorsy guy. He liked to mountain bike and pass around a ball as much as the next guy. Why he would spend such a nice day indoors while his friends got to enjoy it was beyond her. Didn't really track with his bubbly personality.

Ezra didn't reply, but his head did perk up in her direction. His fingers wandered the keys, poking out something akin to a song Dad liked to put on record. Gabbi vaguely remembered the lyrics: Momma, I just killed a man. Put a gun up to his head, pulled the trigger now he's dead...

"I didn't know you could play the piano."

"I don't," he replied shortly, still not looking at her.

"How're your dancing feet?" she asked, on the topic of music. "The Hope Gala is coming up and, if you're chosen to be in the final ten, I'm sure you'll be forced to dance a waltz or two - "

Ezra stood up from the piano and walked over to the other side of the room, his palm held out to her.

"Gabbi just...just stop."

"I'm sorry," she apologized, confused. This whole interaction had been strange, and just now Gabbi was getting a nagging feeling something was terribly wrong. "Did I do something to upset you?"

He huffed out a laugh and finally looked at her. That...that was not good. He looked pissed. Pissed and upset. Like eyes red from crying upset.

"I want to end our arrangement."

"What?"

Gabbi didn't understand. Everything had been going well. Sure, the fair could've been better, but he did so well on trivia and had managed to stay in the game for this long. He even had a solo date yesterday from what Gabbi had heard. That had to count for something. And now he was just going to throw her away?

"I just... I think you're getting more out of this arrangement than I am."

"That's not true."

"It's totally true! You got your time on stage, the tattoo. What did I get? Absolutely humiliated all day."

Gabbi winced. Of course she hadn't heard how the date actually went. Of course it had to be poor. It wouldn't be Delia if things were smooth. It was just, Delia had been doing so well. she'd been smiling, laughing even at the fair. Something akin to the sister who had disappeared a year ago. Gabbi thought...well...she had thought wrong.

"Ezra, we can work with this - "

"You said you could keep me in this, that you could get Delia to like me, but she hates me!"

"I doubt she hates you - "

"You didn't see the way she looked at me. I did. I was dirt under her shoes, and if I'm not going home tomorrow, it'll be next week, and I can kiss this place goodbye." Ezra hung his head, exhaustion and stress creeping into his frustration. His eyes were wet. He looked away. "Moms will be so disappointed...and the student loans, the debts..."

"Ezra...I won't let that happen."

"How can you even promise that?" He asked, angry and confused. "You're no one, just like me. The General's granddaughter? No one around here even seems to realize you exist, and you think you can roll up to the King and Queen and beg them for me to stay?"

"No, but I can talk to Princess Cordelia - "

"Because you're such good friends? She's never even mentioned you," Ezra said, and Gabbi felt sick to her stomach. He looked at her like she was a liar, like she was nothing. "Do you even know her? Judging on the advice you've given me, it's like you barely know her at all."

Those words cut deeper than Ezra could ever know.

It was like he took a knife and stuck it in the one nerve he knew would hurt the most. Because Gabbi was afraid. Afraid that she was a stranger to Delia, to Hayden and Auden and Kasey and Elodie. That they were strangers to her in return. That she would die and her siblings wouldn't even mourn her because they shared nothing.

Gabbi used to know Delia like the back of her hand. She used to be able to recite her favorite movie, what she ate on her hamburger, how often she trimmed her toenails. Now she couldn't pin down a single thing Delia liked or disliked. Overnight, her sister had morphed into someone else.

And maybe that was Gabbi's fault. She should have tried harder, should have come out her isolation and broken the rules. Relationships were two way streets. But where were her siblings? Why didn't they love her enough to don the bunny suits and visit her in the ICU? Why did they maintain holding her at arm's length?

Was it wrong to be mad at herself and her sister at the same time? Was it even possible? To feel grief and anger balled into one, so violent and so fresh that it threatened to drown her?

"I've only tried to help you," she managed to get out, still reeling. She had to clutch onto the nearest chair to steady herself, her vision strangely spotty.

"Why?" Ezra asked, near a plead. Like he was just as torn as she was. "Why do you care so much about what I do, or what the princess does, or anything about this Selection? Why me?"

"Because..." Gabbi felt her throat close and shut, close and shut. "Because we're friends."

It felt like such a lame excuse, something she thought was true up until this very moment. Maybe she didn't know what that word meant at all. Because the way Ezra looked at her was not friendly. It was anything but.

"We are not friends," Ezra said, tears building at the corners of his eyes. "You're just some girl who I was nice to. I didn't ask for you to latch onto me, and I sure as hell didn't ask to be some kind of puppet in whatever sick game you're playing with the princess."

"You don't mean that."

"I really, really do."

Fresh tears burned, but she blinked them back.

"I can fix this."

"Have you even been listening? I don't want you to fix it! I want you to leave me alone!" Ezra finally shouted, pulling at his hair. "All you've done since I met you was make my life more complicated! I could have been myself this whole time and maybe Delia would have liked me for me. Now I'll never know because you were convinced you could make me Prince Charming. Well look at me! How did the great experiment turn out?"

Gabbi had no words. She was stunned. With anger, with grief, with the urge to cry. Why did it always have to be tears? She felt them on her cheeks, hot and wet. She didn't want to cry in front of Ezra. She didn't want to cry in front of anyone.

Ezra didn't have the patience for her to find the words. He pushed past her and stormed out the room.

Gabbi knew she had to leave before someone caught her. There was no reason she should be caught here in the Selected wing. There would only be questions, and with questions came trouble. She had to move.

One foot in front of the other, her brain instructed her body. She was in control of none of it. One moment she was in the room with Ezra and the next she was standing in a hall two floors down and half way across the palace.

She couldn't breathe.

She couldn't -

Bark!

Gabbi looked up to see a mass of brown fur running her way. She barely had time to process before she got a lapful of fluffy German Shepherd. The weight was grounding, and Gabbi found herself holding onto the thick fur for dear life as she shook and shook and shook.

As the seconds passed, her breaths evened out, timing them to the swells of the dog's chest. It was surprisingly easy.

"Good boy Titus," she muttered, scratching the dog behind his ears where she knew he liked it best.

Titus whined and pawed at her legs, making room for himself to plop down. Sure, he was heavy, but Gabbi didn't mind. It was like wearing a weighted blanket that also breathed. And slobbered.

"Titus!" came a voice from around the corner. Hayden followed a moment later, running awkwardly slow in her high heels. She slowed down and sighed, hands on her knees. "There you are!"

The dog didn't move, slobbering on Gabbi like Hayden hadn't said a word. Titus was trained to handle anxious people; it spoke volumes that he ignored Hayden now. Clearly Gabbi needed an intervention, some TLC at the very least.

"Ugh, of course he'll behave for you," Hayden complained, crossing her hands over her chest. "Kase told me to watch over him, but he knows Titus never listens to me. He also didn't say he'd be gone this long. My room is starting to smell like dog."

"He can stay with me. I don't mind."

"You know Mom and Dad would have a cow if they even knew you were cuddling him right now."

"I can never have nice things," Gabbi grumbled, giving Titus scratches behind his giant ears.

"Hey, are you okay? You look like you've been crying."

"Yeah, fine," Gabbi lied, tilting her head back and blinking rapidly to stop the tears. "Just the usual existential bullshit."

Gabbi thought she was doing a good job with the coverup, but Hayden saw right through Gabbi's fake smile. Hayden looked concerned, far too much for Gabbi's liking. Gabbi didn't like having concern thrown her way; it always coincided with more tests or doctors. Better for everyone to think she was always fine, even if she was breaking down inside.

Hayden got a little closer.

"I know I haven't been the best sister lately, but you can talk to me. You know that, right?"

"I know Hay. Thanks."

Did she know? Really? Yeah they were sisters and they shared the same house, siblings, parents, and so much more, but when had they ever had the kind of relationship that required spilling their guts? That was always reserved for Auden and Hayden - always together, the same mind. Or even Elodie and Kasey before their big fallout. Despite their close age, Gabbi had felt a sort of distance from Hayden. An untouchable gap that came in the form of popularity and fame.

Sure, they hadn't been the closest of siblings, but Gabbi was running out of time to wait making a change. There was no better time than now.

"The truth is...I'm lonely. I've been lonely for so long, and then I wasn't...and now...I forgot how much it sucks."

"It's the fucking worst," Hayden commiserated, sliding down the wall so she sat right next to Gabbi. "When Auden left I thought she'd never survive out there on her own. Turns out I'm the one who can't survive without her. Without her I am a complete and utter self-destructive mess."

They could not have been more different, but in this moment, they were one and the same.

"So, who did you lose?"

"No one. It's no one important," Gabbi said with a sniff, lying because she had to. "I had this friend. It was a long distance, sporadic type thing. Honestly he didn't even know who he was talking to, and I was way more invested than he was. It doesn't matter."

It couldn't matter. Not unless she wanted to detonate a bomb through what remained of her siblings.

"Of course it matters. Of course it does." Hayden gently pulled Gabbi into her side, some semblance of a cautious half-hug. Titus lowered his head to her feet, snuggling in close. "I'm sure the docs can connect you to another pen pal. It'll be alright Gabs. You have us. You won't be alone."

Gabbi couldn't listen to whatever else Hayden had to say. All she could hear was General Ledger saying I told you so.